Life and death struggle at Casa da Ayre

Gotcha ! 

A Praying mantis grabs a fly on the wall of Casa da Ayre, and proceeds to devour it head-first.

Guilty pleasures 

I have to laugh - my lovely wife gets a very similar expression on her face when I catch her in the act of gobbling Lindt chocolate ! I love Praying mantises - this one was a young female and I was very happy to have her hanging around for a couple of days.  

Ahhh, Australian magpies . . .

Hey, you look interesting.  Do you have food ? ? ? 

I have a passion for wildlife, especially herpetofauna.  But I also adore Australian magpies.  I just can't help it because of their displays of intelligence.  The local subspecies here in the Hunter valley is the Black-backed magpie, Cacticus tibicen tibicen, so named for obvious reasons.

My passion for this species really began in April 2000, when my father introduced me to the local magpie, we had nicknamed "Pew" after the magpie in Murray Ball's legendary cartoon series, Footrot Flats.  Pew was a real character and immediately recognisable by his droopy right wing.  He used to terrorise any visitors to his territory.  If you were local, you were just fine and completely immune from attack.  But woe-betide any visitor for those couple of weeks when Pew and Mrs Pew had chicks that were about to fledge.

I've never forgotten the shrill screams of terror coming from the public toilet across from our office one fine Spring morning.  Dad and I bolted outside, fearing someone was being assaulted in the toilet block.  Well, actually the lady was being harassed but the crazed monster was a uber-defensive magpie, guarding his territory.  Picture the scene; there was Pew, perched on the gutter of the public amenities block, glaring with such venom into the ladies side of the public toilets that the thirty something woman was immobilized and shrieking with pure terror . . .  Looking back, I still remember the look of pure hatred in the magpie's eyes as Dad and I rescued the woman.  He was going to kill her for certain.  Luckily for Pew, the woman was not physically injured at all, and we were able to persuade her that our magpie was only like that while he had young in the nest.  No complaint was made.  I often wonder how close the old fella came that day to getting a dangerous bird complaint made against him.

Anyway, I crossed paths with another pair of magpies on Sunday that made me laugh.  They were watching me, so I laid flat on the ground and pretended to dig in the lawn.  Incredibly curious, the magpies came right up to me for a closer look.  A much closer look . . .    

Angry Birds?  Nope, just a curious magpie.   

They came really close to me to see what this weird human was doing.   

What ARE you doing down there you strange human? 

Coast is clear.  He's just plumb crazy . . . and then they left me to chase a passing Australian raven out of their territory.  

Swallows are still here

"Our" Welcome swallow family are still roosting next to their nest here at Casa da Ayre every night.  It's wonderful to see all five Welcome swallows all huddled together in a mass of fluff and down.

Gorgeous day out with the wife . . .

A curious old eel out hunting in a local creek in the middle of the day not far from Casa da Ayre  

My wife and I had PLANS for today, and like everything, it pays to be flexible.

We went beach fishing last night, chasing the elusive Mulloway from one of our secret beach gutters.  It was a lovely evening, with almost no breeze, and it clouded over about two hours before dark.  It was still and humid, and the surf was small.  I felt we had a pretty good chance of a School jewfish, as it was a very dark night thanks to the clouds.  When we both started to see things before our eyes, I thought our odds had climbed significantly.  The "things" were the "Will O' the Wisp" flashes you see when there is lightning in the distance.  There was an electrical storm way off to the west of us and we could see the odd flash of light playing on the waves.  It's an odd experience.  Your eyes are night-adapted and uber-sensitive to the slightest light source.  The ripples on the surface of the small surf were reflecting the micro-flashes of distant lightning back to us.  Amanda was almost afraid to ask if I could see it too - she thought she was going slightly mad and seeing things . . .

We ended up having a successful night, though not with the target species I had in mind.  Amanda caught all of the fish.  Again.  She caught an absolute stonking-big Yellow-finned bream, and followed it up with a whopper of a Wirrah.  The Wirrah was released unharmed, but the bream received a dinner invitation to Casa da Ayre, and will be Monday night's dinner.  Yum !

Because of the ideal conditions, we decided that we'd get up at 5:00 am the next morning (today, Sunday 16th November) and head to our local LBG fishing ledge.  The warm water is just starting to hit our coast - it's 22 degrees Celcius according to the BoM website.  Anything above 16 degrees is fishable (if you are desperate) but above 20 degrees and you are in with a solid chance.  Well, 22 degrees is almost ideal conditions to go ballooning for hard-pulling Yellowtail kingfish and Australian bonito at this time of year.

I was awake before the alarm at 5am - looked outside and promptly went back to bed.  It was blowing quite strongly from the South West, and raining hard.  A warm bed snuggling with my lovely wife was far more appealing than getting pounded on an exposed rock ledge in driving rain.

The funny thing was that the rain cleared by about 8am.  The clouds looked sensational and so we decided to go on a scouting trip for photographic locations.  We have a couple of shoots coming up for friends in the next few weeks, and we wanted some novel locations.

So we found ourselves wandering through the bush not far from home.  The day had cleared after all that rain and we had a lot of fun playing "model" in the bush.  I looked down and noticed a gorgeous old eel in the water right at my feet.  It was out hunting for earthworms and other prey brought out by the little fresh run-off into its creek.  I have a very soft spot in my heart for eels.  I kept six tiny little eels in a fish tank for years.  They were about two inches long when I caught them, and about ten inches long when I released them.  I found them under a rock, right on the edge of a fresh water stream that flowed into Lake Macquarie when I was looking for frogs.  I got the shock of my life when I turned this large rock over - "worms" went writhing everywhere !  I grabbed a couple to feed to "Billy", my pet Australian bass, when I realised they were not worms.  I managed to catch six of the little eels.  I'm not sure at what size they are considered elvers or whether a two inch eel should be called an eel.  Anyway, I popped them in my tackle box with a little water and they all survived the trip home.

They thrived for years in one of my tanks and were truly remarkable creatures.  I have never seen anything so active.  And smart.  They used to swim constantly throughout their tank, and were ALWAYS hungry.  They knew exactly where food came from too.  I fed them earth worms - initially small pieces of tiny worms were cut up and enthusiastically swallowed.  As they grew they ate larger worms.  Pieces of prawn, Gambusia, even tiny pieces of steak.  If it fit in their mouths, they'd eat it until they were too fat to swim.

One day I decided it was time to let them go, and I returned them all to the same spot I'd caught them, three or so years before.  I was sad to see them go, but it was time.  So I find eels quite endearing creatures.  This one swam right up to where my wife was standing, and even stuck it's head out of the water - I think to get a better look at her.        

Paper wasps revisited . . .

Common paper wasps Polistes humilis nesting at Casa da Ayre. Image © Gavin Ayre 2014, Post production by the Great Love of My Life, Amanda Ayre

Last Sunday I wrote about the Paper wasps we noticed nesting under our veranda.  Almost a week later and you can see there are two cells now closed off by the larvae as they are pupating.  In a few days the young wasps will emerge from their cells.    

Welcome swallows coming & goings.

As noted in a previous post, "our" Welcome swallows returned after an absence of a few days on the Friday 7th November.  They spent the night roosting alongside their nest in the carport at Casa da Ayre, and were gone in the morning.

They have been coming & going during the day, zooming around the back yard and through the car port at irregular intervals over the weekend.  But they roosted elsewhere during the evening.  Good news - they roosted in our carport again last night (Monday 10th November).

It's quite fascinating to watch this pair of Welcome swallows and their brood.  I always assumed they would fledge and we'd never see them again.  If we were super-fortunate, they might come back to breed again in the future.  But to our utter delight, "our" swallows have been returning frequently since they have fledged.  Who would have thought that an old nest might be important to them?    

Paper wasps

Common paper wasps Polistes humilis nesting at Casa da Ayre. Image © Gavin Ayre 2014 

I am always amazed at the amount of life all around us here in Lake Macquarie if you take the effort to look.  I was enjoying breakfast in the gloriously fresh morning air with my wife this morning and a small movement caught my eye.  I looked up to the roof above us and noticed these paper wasps had built a nest.  So I grabbed Amanda's camera & took a couple of quick shots.  This one was my favourite image.

What is interesting to me is that you can see most of the stages here from eggs through to larvae that are almost ready to pupate.  Unlike Honey bees, you can see how the cells are all open.  The larvae will seal itself off in its' cell when it is ready to pupate and eventually emerge as an adult wasp.

The Welcome swallows are back !

After an absence of a few days, we were utterly delighted to discover that our Welcome swallows are back roosting next to their nest again.  They are not sitting in their nest, but all five are perched within 50 cm of the nest inside the open RHS metal beams of the car port.  WIN !

Fernleigh track spiders

An unusual spider on Melaleuca tree near the Fernleigh Track, Belmont NSW, 4th November 2014.

I went for a stroll along the Fernleigh track on Tuesday night after dinner as mentioned in the previous post.  There was not much in the way of wildlife; in fact I only observed seven species in just over half an hour.

The wildlife was concentrated near the water as usual.  The track meanders through and around a couple of swamps, which are richly endowed with large, mature Melaleuca trees, that were alive with spiders.  The little spider posted on the top of the post was quite small, about as round as an Australian 20 c piece including her legs.  I will update this post if I can work out what species it is.  Do any of the readers know ?  Please comment if you know.

A large Fishing spider in head-down hunting posture on a Melaleuca trunk approx 20 cm
above the swamp edge.  Spider nearly as large as Australian 50c coin.
Fernleigh track, Belmont, NSW. 

The Melaleuca genus have loose, papery bark which gives the species its common name; "Paperbark".  They are an interesting tree, prospering in wetlands that regularly flood and also dry completely.  Melaleucas thrive where few other trees can survive.  Their scientific name loosely translates as "black and white", which is a ruddy good name for them if you have ever seen them after a fire.  Their bark burns rapidly on the outside but slowly on the inside, which insulates and shields the living tree from all but the most intense fires.

The bark peels away from the tree in great sheets, which provide homes for everything from cockroaches and tree frogs to microbats.  And Black house spiders like the big female pictured below.  She looks like she should be called a "Brown house spider", but I think the brown colour is from the intensity of the flash.  

Adult female Black house spider in her web on a Melaleuca tree, Fernleigh track, Belmont, NSW.

Same adult female Black house spider pictured above in her web
on a Melaleuca tree trunk, Fernleigh track, Belmont, NSW.

Fernleigh Track wildlife observations, 4th November 2014

Dwarf eastern tree frog, Litoria fallax, Fernleigh track Belmont NSW  

I went for a walk along the Belmont North end of the Fernleigh track last night after dinner for a little bit of gentle exercise.  I was quite surprised at the paucity of wildlife activity because it had been a fairly warm day and was still a pleasant evening.  It's warm enough for mosquitos to be active now and insect repellent is definitely needed.

It was a quiet night with not much animal activity.  I put this down to two things; the moon was quite bright in the clear sky and there was about twelve knots of breeze blowing.

The reasons for a lack of activity on moonlit evenings appear to be pretty obvious.  I believe that the increased light levels make it much easier for a predator to see, hence most animals feel more vulnerable and try to lie low for a week or so.  Perhaps they concentrate their activity periods into bursts before or after the moon rises or sets.  My anecdotal observations indicate that even if the moon is behind thick cloud and it's raining heavily, animal activity is still reduced.  
The breeze is another factor that correlates to quiet evenings in the bush.  I personally believe that animals are probably more vulnerable during windy evenings because their sense of hearing is greatly diminished by the noise of the breeze.  Even snakes, which are considered to be deaf by human standards are less common on windy evenings.  I also suspect that evaporation rates may be increased during windy evenings.  This might make conditions less than pleasant for delicate animals such as frogs or the invertebrates the frogs eat.

But these are just personal hypotheses.  I am anthropomorphising if you like.  In all seriousness, there is no way to be sure, as we are humans, and not reptiles, frogs, fish, small mammals or invertebrates etc.  I am only guessing about the reasons I observe quieter activity patterns during these times.  

It was a very pleasing evening to be in my local patch of bush again, even if it was very quiet, animal wise.  Most of the activity was in the mature Melaleuca forest that borders a small swamp.  The trees excluded the breeze, and the air was still.  I saw a few spiders, and there were only a sparse handful of frogs calling.  I picked up the eye shine of a few young striped marsh frogs foraging on the floor of the Melaleuca forest.  I was lucky enough to watch a very small species of snake, harmless to humans, forage ever so slowly across the track.

What a gorgeous little frog.  A Dwarf eastern tree frog, Litoria fallax, Fernleigh Track Belmont NSW.

Frogs 
Common eastern froglet Crinia signifera 
Dwarf eastern tree frog Litoria fallax 
Peron's tree frog Litoria peronii 
Tyler's tree frog Litoria tyleri 
Striped marsh frog Limnodynastes peronii
Tusked frog Adelotus brevis       

Reptiles 
Dwarf crowned snake Cacophis krefftii 

So there you are, only seven species of herpetofauna heard or observed in the space of half an hour right in the middle of one of Australia's largest cities.  It was a quiet night in the bush indeed.

Swallow update

It's sad to report, but we had a completely empty nest last night for the first time since the Welcome swallows nested in our car port.

Our hearts have been warmed by seeing the five remaining Welcome swallows nearly every day since the babies fledged.  They seem to be hunting in the area during the day and return every few hours to flit through the carport.  Better still, each night the whole group has been returning to roost in their nest in the carport.

Last night was the first time "our" Welcome swallows have been away from home all night.  Amanda and I both missed them.  We hope they keep dropping by from time-to-time to visit us and nest here again soon.    

One of the strangest encounters I have ever had . . .

An aptly named snake if there ever was,  a Bandy Bandy (Vermicella annulata). Photo courtesy Amanda Ayre, © 2014 all rights reserved.

I had been interstate on a business trip during the week, and felt deeply restless.  It had been a very productive trip by any measure; I had kicked some major goals professionally and networked with some legendary people in my field.  More importantly, I had some profound insights into the way we do higher-level business and that alone was invaluable.  I was able to identify a few opportunities we can pursue in my area of responsibility to improve our services.  I will be implementing changes to take full advantage of them. The trip was an opportunity to learn, to develop professionally and best of all, it was fun.

As wonderful as things went professionally, I really missed my wife.  It was great to be back home and catch up on things.  Better still, we were going to spend the weekend together, camping in the bush.  Due to a couple of unforeseen things, our planned four-wheel driving and trout fishing trip to Barrington Tops had to be postponed and we spent the weekend at home.  That's no excuse to feel sorry for yourself though and so we decided to have a day trip somewhere.  The seasons are definitely changing, and we are now charging through Spring. The weather is becoming warmer and the humidity is slowly-but-surely increasing.  Summer is approaching and on Saturday, the air felt charged.  It felt like there was a change coming.

It was mid afternoon and clouds began to build very rapidly.  The light faded quickly and the afternoon became very dull and grey.  A decent storm had arrived.  Fat droplets of rain started to land.  The intensity built quickly and it rained hard for twenty minutes. The tin roof of our verandah was deafening and the gutters of the little garage overflowed.  Just as though someone had thrown a switch, the rain slowed and then stopped. The leaden sky brightened as the clouds parted and the light returned.  The day warmed noticeably and the humidity rose.  A cold front had definitely just passed over the area.  This was going to be a perfect evening to look for wildlife.

We chose Myall Lakes National Park for our destination on this trip, as it's a beautiful spot and home to some remarkable fauna & flora.  But I don't know if we will bother going back after Saturday night's experience.

I have been visiting the Myall Lakes National Park for over forty years now, and can hardly believe how degraded the experience has become around Mungo Brush.  To me Mungo is an outstanding example of how Australians can love an area to absolute death.  When I began to visit Mungo as a child, the road was unsealed and quite rough.  This had the effect of keeping speed down and minimised the number of visitors.  Over the years, I have noticed a distinct correlation between the roughness of the access road into an area and the number of ratbags you will find there.  It's no surprise that after the road to Mungo was sealed, the number of visitors absolutely exploded . . .

So what am I complaining about? Well, I know that things change whether you want them to or not and "progress" supposedly can't be stopped.  But Mungo Brush last Saturday night was only slightly quieter than the Pacific Highway.  Yes, OK, perhaps that's a minor exaggeration.  An area where I was once lucky to see three or four cars per night, we must have seen sixty.  Worst of all, there were at least ten cars that I considered to be herpetologists based on their behaviour.  They were slowly cruising up and down the road with people spotlighting out the window.  In an area that I would hardly ever encounter another herpetologist, this broke my heart.

Despite having a perfect weather window, and nearly ideal conditions on the night, we saw very little fauna.  I hardly had reason to wonder why.  Here's the night's list;

Bandy bandy (Vermicella annulata)
Banjo frog (Limnodynastes dumerilii dumerilii)
Bleating tree frog (Litoria dentata)
Blind snake (Ramphotyphlops nigrescens)
Burtons legless lizard (Lialis burtonis) 
Common eastern froglet (Crinia signifera)
Dwarf eastern tree frog (Litoria fallax)
Long necked tortoise (Chelodina longicollis)
Perons tree frog (Litoria peroni)
Planigale (Planigale maculata)
Rocket frog (Litoria nasuta)
Striped marsh frog (Limnodynastes peronii)
Tawny frogmouth owl
Tylers tree frog (Litoria tyleri)
Uperoleia spp frog (Its nearly impossible to identify this genus to species level from calls by ear)

I can hardly believe how little we saw.  And I could hardly believe how many probable herpetologists were about either, and this is a neat segue into one of the most disturbing experiences I have ever endured in the bush . . .

My wife and I had just found the gorgeous little Bandy Bandy featured in this post.  We'd watched as she crossed the road, and photographed her as she hunted through the vegetation on the road verge.  She stopped briefly on the fallen log, which gave us an opportunity to take a few nice images. Bandy Bandys are nocturnal and have a pretty specialised ecological niche - they are an exclusive predator of blind snakes.  They are also elapid snakes; front-fanged and venomous.  They have a reputation for being very inoffensive and from the few people that have sustained a bite from one, their venom appears to be mild.  That said, I do not trust any snake, and I would prefer to avoid getting bitten by any snake - even supposedly harmless ones.  Unless there is an essential need, such as removing a snake from a dwelling, I will not ever handle a venomous snake.

The Bandy Bandy's main defence is their colouration.  The black and white banding can be difficult to track in poor light due to the phenomenon of "flicker fusion".  Have you ever seen an old black and white spaghetti-western and noticed the way the wagon wheels seem to turn backwards?  That's the same effect.  If a Bandy Bandy was cornered and unable to escape, they will position their bodies in a unique way, raising their bodies in a distinct posture of loops before trying to flee as quickly as they can.  They will try anything to escape.  If anyone was ever bitten by a Bandy Bandy, you can bet they were handling it.    

Photographing the Bandy Bandy with an iPhone - to geotag the exact spot in the image metadata.  

We finished taking voucher photos and put Amanda's Nikon D750, soft-boxes and flash units back in the car.  We were laying on the ground taking a couple of quick iPhone photos.  We often do this simply to record the exact location for the Atlas of Living Australia (see http://www.ala.org.au). This because the iPhone uses its built-in GPS to geotag the exact position in the metadata of it's photos.  A white Holden Commodore cruised past. It did a quick U-turn and raced back to park next to us.  Grrr.  I don't like this already.  Four doors slam in the darkness and suddenly my wife and I are surrounded by four blokes, shining their lights in our faces.

This is just what I really didn't want - a quiet night with the wife and now I am surrounded by four strange blokes.  I can't see them properly and their intentions are unclear.  The hair on the back of my neck is fully raised, and I am listening to my instincts.  One or two people; no problem, probably just a couple of herpos out looking to see what's about just like us.  But FOUR people piling out of an old Commodore; this is not normal for herpetologists, and is starting to smell very wrong.

The first one rushes up to me, almost into my personal space, shines his head torch right into my eyes and says "you're Gavin Ayre aren't you?  Yeah, that's you.  Gavin Ayre."

WTF?  For some unknown reason, this person I've never met thinks it is acceptable to rush up to me uninvited in the bush at night. Then invade my personal space in complete darkness, blind me with a Led Lenser head-torch and then identify me by name.  Even worse, I don't recognise this person at all.

Who is this and what in the heck do they want?  How in the heavens so they know me and recognise my face - in the dark no less?  What in the bloody hell is going on here?

By this point, I've had just about as much of this as I can tolerate.   I am readying myself to defend myself and my wife.  I'm weighing up who is the biggest to take them down first.  I shone my head torch into their eyes to disorientate them and give them dancing spots in their vision for what might be a vital ten seconds or so.

"Who is asking?" I challenged belligerently.  I hoped you hear the warning - you blokes are way too close and I'm not sure what's happening here.

Space Invader stepped back and gave his name.  Means absolutely nothing to me - never heard of him.  How in the hell do you know me?  Supposedly recognised me from Facebook - something I have not used for the best part of two years.  Bloody hell, this person clearly has been spending w-a-a-a-a-y too much time on the internet cyber-stalking other people.  

When they saw the Bandy Bandy they started speaking my language - herpetology.  I relaxed.  It was just four blokes looking to see what was out and about.  Simply four completely socially incompetent amateur herpetologists, and in their excitement had rushed up to us uninvited to see what we'd found. For a few moments I honestly thought they were up to no good and this wouldn't end well.

From their utter lack of social mores, I'm guessing they were from Sydney and were camped in the area somewhere nearby. . .  Country people would know better than to rush up to someone that they didn't know at night.  And getting into a strangers personal space at night is an incredibly stupid thing to do.  

The boys told me they'd seen three other Bandy Bandys in the last few days and a few more interesting road kills.  Apparently one of the Bandy Bandys they had found had thrown loops for them, so they were probably just photographing wildlife.  Obviously they'd been in the area for a few days.

Close-up of the Bandy Bandy, Myall Lakes National Park, 1st November 2014.
Notice the creamy tinge on the first two bands on the snake's head.  All of the other bands were snow white. 

If they ever read this, I hope they stop and think just for a moment how their behaviour appeared to me.  It was not a very clever thing you did there fellas.  FFS if you had even a little bit of courtesy, you would have stopped at your car and ASKED IF WE MINDED four complete strangers joining us in the darkness.    

Simple common courtesy goes a long way.  If I ever bump into these four blokes again, and I'd say there is a very good chance I will, I hope that things will be a lot more cordial.